Billboard display posting



Aug. 6, 1940. 5. CHASE. 4TH 2209,958

BILLBOARD DISPLAY POSTING Filed Jan. 23, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet l 1940- s. CHASE, 4TH 2.209358 BILLBOARD DISPLAY POSTING Filed Jan. 23, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 5? fizz INVENTOR.

Patented Aug. 6, 1940 UNITED STTES PATENT OFFICE T 2,209,958 BILLBOARD DISPLAY POSTING Stephen Chase, IV, Kenilworth, 1]]. Application January 23, 1939, Serial No. 252,339

5 Claims.

This invention comprises improvements in display installations of the kinds sometimes referred to as billboards, which are particularly adapted for the displaying of large posters or advvertisements, usually outdoors.

A general object of the present invention is the provision of improved structure, or means, whereby large display postings, such as outdoor billboards, which quite generally are of dimensions of the order of, twenty-five feet by eleven feet, may be installed and maintained with facility and very economically, and which make it possible to improve the general appearance of such installations quite materially and afford increased possibilities or scope for variety and adaptability of the displays at costs which represent substantial reductions from the expense normally involved in the installation and maintenance of billboard displays.

Another object of the present invention is the provision ofnovel means which may be employed very economically to adapt posting installations of fixed sizes to posters of various sizes in such fashion as to produce artistic and well'balanced displays.

Other and further objects of the invention will be pointed out or indicated hereinafter or will 7 be apparent to one skilled in the art from the following explanation of the invention or upon employment of it in use. I

For the purpose of aiding in an explanation of the invention, I show in the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, and hereafter describe, certain forms and fashions in which the invention may be embodied and practiced. It is to be understood, however, that these are presented merely for purpose of illustration, and hence are not to be construed in any fashion for the purpose of limiting the appended claims short of the true and most comprehensive scope of the invention in the art.

In said drawings:

Fig. 1 represents a perspective view of a unitary and isolated installation, in the nature of a billboard, representing an embodiment according to the present invention;

Fig.2 is a detail representing a front or face .view of portions of the installation which will hereinafter be referred to as margin strips;

Fig. 3 represents a detail or fragmentary view, in the nature'of a front perspective view of a part of one form of installation which is representative of the invention; and

Fig.4 is a front view of a display installation in e course of assembly and serving to illustrate certain particulars of method of fabrication invention.

From the standpoints of both the merchandiser who desires to advertise his products in an atthe construction and constituting the present pense due to the, deterioration of the wooden or metal parts from the weather disfigurement by paste, birds, other causes, all of which make it necessary that the moldings be repainted rather frequently. and at considerable cost, in order that their proper appearance be maintained.

The present invention obviates the necessity for such a frame, and eliminates the cost of maintaining it, and gains other important advantages from the standpoints of appearances, versatility and convenience. e

The nature of my improved display installation and due to their or from various and the method .of making or assembling it will.

be explained by drawings.

reference to the accompanying The installation includes, in the first place, a suitable foundation affording a proper smooth surface upon which posters, such as the common paper billboard posters, maybe pasted. In Fig. 3 this foundation is illustrated as a sheet metal wall or diaphragm l0 supported in approximately flat condition, and usually upstanding position, by appropriate frame members H. Itis to be understood, however, that the foundation may be of any other appropriate character or construction, such as a wall made of wood, masonry, etc. This foundation member constitutes a relatively permanent portion of the installation, and is the part which supports the display elements in position for observation.

The display elements comprise the margin strips, which are designated in the various figures the margin of the drawings by the reference numerals l2 and I2, and the poster, which is designated by the reference numeral 14, and which, in itself, may be made up of several sections, or various parts, movable or otherwise, according to the nature of the display. The margin strips 12 and. I2 are sheets or strips of suitable poster paper or other similar material which are adapted to be attached or fastened to the foundation wall ID, as by adhesive paste or other appropriate means. These margin strips are lithographed, or otherwise printed or decorated, along at least one margin so as to represent a border or frame, as in the nature of a moulding of embossed or raised or cove form, said decorative border portions being designated in the various figures by the reference numeral lZa, The balance of the sheet or strip, between the border portion l2a and the opposite margin, is left blank, and constitutes what I will refer to as a blanking portion, This blanking portion is designated by the reference numeral l2b. In a copending application, Serial No. 252,338, filed on even date herewith I describe this blanking strip in more detail and explain the manner in which it may be made. Preferably, though not necessarily, these blanking strips are supplied in rolled-up condition in the nature of a roll of paper, with the printed or decorated surface at the inner side.

Various steps in the assembly of the margin strips with the foundation wall are illustrated in Fig. 4. In accordance with the procedure here illustrated, paste is applied to marginal surface portions of the foundation member of a width corresponding approximately to the width of the margin strips, said areas here being illustrate-d generally by the stippling. Of course, the foundation member may include one o: more layers of paper or the like adhesively secured to the wall portion l0 and to one another, as the case may be, as parts ofprevious postings, and it is to be understood that when such lays are present, they are to be regarded as parts of the foundation member within the meaning of that term in the present specification. After the marginal surface portions of the foundation member have thus been prepared with paste, strips are applied thereto so as to become adhesively secured in position. The workman illustrated as applyinga margin strip to the upper margin of the foundation member in Fig. 4 is accomplishing the operation in a manner which may be referred to as the long handled method. In such procedure, the roll [2n of margin strip is placed on a spindle carried at the end of a pole P, and is manipulated by the workman in such fashion as to press the margin strip againstthe pasted area and unroll it along the horizontal marginal portion of the foundation member. The workman in the middle is represented as applying a margin strip along the lower margin of the foundation member by holding the roll in' his hands and unrolling the strip against the pasted area. It is to be understood that this sort of procedure also might be used along the top margin of the installation, if a suitable scaffolding were provided for the workman to stand upon,

The third Workman shown'in' Fig. 4 is illustrated as applying an end margin strip to the foundation member. In this case, the strip is cut to the proper length, and then mitered or cut off at a 45 diagonal at its ends, and paste is applied to the end portions of the upper and lower margin strips 12 as well as to the intervening marginal portion of the foundation member. The workman is illustrated as raising the mitered margin strip on his brush so as to apply the mitered portion upon the pasted area on the upper margin strip 12. This being done, and the end margin strip l2 pasted in place with its mitered ends overlapping the ends of both the upper and lower margin strips l2, and another margin strip being similarly applied at the opposite end of the installation, by virtue of the presence of the border portion I'Za, the installation will have the appearance of a large quadrilateral frame bordering a new or fresh blank or mat area l2b running parallel with the frame, as illustrated in fragmentary fashion in Fig. 2. As illustrated in that figure as well as in Figs. 1 and 3, the appearance or simulation of a frame will be heightened by the mitered appearance at the corners as indicated at It.

After the margin strips have thus been applied to the foundation member, the poster IA is pasted up, usually in sections. While inlarge outdoor billboards a size of approximately twenty-five feet by eleven feet is quite generally regarded as standard, it is recognized that those dimensions are merely approximations, inasmuch as various conditions of location, etc. require variations from that specific size. Moreover, the posters, which as a rule are furnished by the advertiser, not by the display space proprietors, vary considerably in size. The margin strips are provided with the blanking areas l2b for the purpose of accommodating these variations in size and proportions of billboards and posters. Consequently, the blanking areas I21) are of substantial width so that they extend into the area Which is intended to be covered by the poster. As a consequence, when a poster is pasted-up after the margin strips are in place, it will overlap portions of the blanking areas, ample in Fig. 3. By virtue of this provision, therefore, the posters may be located in their properly balanced or symmetric position in the marginal frame or border in each of various installations which have foundation members of different areas or dimensions, The completed installation, therefore, as illustrated in Fig. 1, exhibits the poster I4 encompassed by a blank mat area l2b and framed by a marginal frame In, giving the installation a neat, finished and substantial appearance.

Certain variations may be made in the procedure and the structure, to meet different condi': tions, without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. not limited to an installation of strictly quadrilateral form, as it will be appreciated that it can be embodied likewise in structures wherein as illustrated for ex- For example, the invention is the display area is of triangular, hexagonal or other geometric form. Moreover, in instances Where the poster is radically oversize in proportion to the display area of the foundation member, the margin strips may be utilized in the fashion of a superimposed mat to blank off, or reduce the size of the exhibited area of the poster. In such instances the poster may be posted up first, and then the margin strips, after the blanking areas have been trimmed down'to the proper width, may be posted up along the margins of the foundation member in such fashion that they overlap the outer surfaces of marginal portions of the poster.

Also, the permanent portion of the installation may be supplemented in various fashions, as by provision of edging strips l1 along-one or more of the margins of the foundation member or display area. I prefer to form these edging strips of thin plates or sheets of. a metal which is non-oxidizable or which oxidizes very slowly and without dark coloration. These strips are applied so as to overlap the margins of the foundation member and project forwardly a short distance beyond the front or posting surface of said member in position where they will overhang or project slightly beyond the outer surface of the poster. Thus these edging strips function to prevent the wind getting in between the foundation member and the edges of the margin strips, and they also function as a water table, and as marginal guides for facilitating the proper positioning of the marginal strips on the foundation member in the operation of posting them up. These forwardly projecting edging strips may also emphasize or heighten the raised or cove appearance of the frame, when the border area 12a is shaded to contribute an appearance of that character. In the illustrations, the thickness and also the projecting width of these edging strips are somewhat exaggerated. Ordinarily, they need be only thin sheet metal of a thickness of the order of one-sixteenth inch.

From the foregoing it will be appreciated that my improved structure and posting method attain important new and advantageous results, in that in the first place they obviate all necessity for painting any display part of the installation in order to keep it in proper sightly condition, and hence eliminate a very substantial item of maintenance expense. The expense involved in pasting up the margin strips for a considerable number of postings on a given installation will be materially less than the cost of periodic painting of a frame for it. In the second place, with each posting of the installation, it is given a completely new and fresh appearance, which in itself is a factor in attracting the attention of. persons who may be accustomed topass the location frequently. In the third place, the invention greatly increases the versatility or flexibility of the display, inasmuch as it enables the use, without additional expense, of frames or borders of color or design harmonious with the design or subject matter of the poster itself, and, as pointed out above, accommodates quite substantial variations in the size of both the billboards and the posters which may be furnished by the advertisers for posting upon them. Moreover, it makes possible the use of border or frame designs of distinctly artistic and ornamental character, which, on account of excessive cost, it is not feasible to provide in the form of a permanent frame or moulding.

I claim:

1. In a display installation, in combination, a foundation member afiording an exposed surface, margin strips adhesively secured to said surface in relationship such as to frame an area thereof, said strips having border areas along their outer margins printed to simulate a frame moulding and having blanking areas extending inwardly from said border areas, and a poster adhesively secured to the foundation member adjacent the margin strips and with marginal portions lapped with and adhesively secured to inner portions of said blanking areas at a distance from said border areas, whereby the margin strips produce the aspect of a mat bordering the poster and a frame bordering the mat.

2. In a display installation, in combination, a

. of substantial area, edging foundation member affording an exposed surface, margin strips adhesively secured to said surface in relationship such as to encompass an area thereof, said strips having border areas along their outer margins printed to simulate a frame moulding and having blanking areas extending inwardly from said border areas, a poster adhesively secured to the foundation member between the margin strips and with marginal portions lapped with and adhesively secured to inner portions of said blanking areas at a distance from said border areas, whereby the margin strips produce the aspect of a mat bordering the poster and a frame bordering the mat, and an edging strip of non-oxidizing metal secured to the foundation member and projecting forwardly therefrom beyond the display surface and along outer margins of the margin strips and shielding the joints between the margin strips and foundation member.

3. In a display installation, in combination, a foundation member affording an exposed surface, margin strips adhesively secured to said surface in angular relationship to one another such as to border an area thereof,said strips having border areas along their outer margins printed to simulate a frame moulding and having blanking areas extending inwardly from said border areas, and a poster adhesively secured to the foundation member between the margin strips and with marginal portions lapped with and adhesively secured to inner portions of said blanking areas, certain of said margin strips having mitered end portions adhesively secured in overlapped relationship on end portions of. others to form corners, whereby the margin strips produce the aspect of a mat bordering the poster and a frame bordering the mat.

4. In a display installation, in combination, a

foundation member affording an exposed surface, margin strips adhesively secured to said surface in relationship such as to frame an area thereof, said strips having border areas along their outer margins printed to simulate a frame moulding and having blanking areas extending inwardly from said border areas, and a poster adhesively secured to the foundation member between the margin strips and with marginal portions lapped with and adhesively secured to inner portions of said blanking areas, said inner portions of the blanking areas being disposed on the outer sides of marginal portions of the poster whereby the margin strips produce the aspect of a mat bordering the poster and a frame bordering the mat.

5. In a display installation, in combination, a foundation member aifording an exposed surface strips secured to said foundation member and extending forwardly beyond said surface and around the same, margin strips pasted on said surface along the edging strips and having border areas therealong printed to represent a frame moulding surrounding an area of the foundation member surface, said margin strips having also blanking areas extending along said border areas and contrasting therewith in appearance, and a poster pasted on the foundation member within the compass of said border area and with marginal portions overlapped with and adhesively secured to marginal areas of the margin strips, whereby the installation has the aspect of a poster bordered by a mat and with both within a frame.

STEPHEN CHASE, 1V 

